Bumble Treatment

[AnnaCastle]

Our beautiful roo has Bumble. We only caught it this morning, he had started to limp a bit more than usual (always had a tiny limp since we got him), not like that yesterday. Bottom of right foot is swollen and warm, noticeably different from the left. I read an article on this site to treat it early by soaking in warm water and epsom salt, dry, spray with Vetrycin, bandage up, which I did. I also stuck at little square of moleskin across the scab.
My question is, how exactly is the epsom supposed to teat it at this early stage? Dry it up and shrink it? And is there anything else I can do? He's confined away from the rest of the flock. We don't want to lose him!!! Everytime time we have a really good roo he dies... Had a hen last year got it, we attempted the surgery, she ended up dying anyway. 3 pictures attached.
Anna

 

[AnnaCastle]

Did you see the photo "1"? No not black yet, but darker reddish brown. I'll need to get my neighbor or someone to hold him if I need to remove that deposit now.

 

[coach723]

This is what I usually do for bumblefoot. If the lesion is very small I will treat it topically with veterycin or neosporin and wrap it. If it's very small that may be all that's needed. When it's larger, or topical treatments don't work I do this basically: https://www.tillysnest.com/2015/12/non-surgical-bumblefoot-treatment.html/?spref=pi
Epsom salts can help with pain and swelling, and can help soften the lesion for removal.
Rather than soak I will often apply decolorized iodine (any drug store will have) and wrap it over night and that will soften it up for removal also. Sometimes the lesion or pus kernal is deeper than it looks just looking at the surface, it's sometimes hard to tell until you get in there. It can sometimes take a fair amount of squeezing to get it all out. Sometimes it's very shallow and fairly easily removed.
Looking at your pictures the non surgical removal is what I would do.
Co flex bandaging works really well for wrapping the foot, it's at most feed supply stores in the horse section. I cut it into strips of varying widths for use (It comes 4" wide), for my roo's usually a 1" width works well, a bit narrower for my hens smaller feet. It keeps the foot pretty clean and dry between changes, and stays on very well.
There is also this, works best on smaller lesions and requires daily soaking:
https://ouroneacrefarm.com/bumblefoot-treatment-tricideneo/
When none of those works, then I will do the surgery.

 

[AnnaCastle]

Thank you, I had already read and was trying that article's treatment. The thing is, it doesn't really specify what stage you can do that at. Any stage? Or only early on? Looks now like it's more advanced than we first thought. I had him standing in the sink soaking his feet for over an hour, and by then had only managed to work around a tiny bit of the kernal. And are you supposed to work around it with your fingernail, wearing a glove? That's what I was doing. Very very slow going.
Also, I finally thought to actually look at the sole of the left foot, and it has a bumble too!! Just not as big as the right one. Both feet! I checked some of the hens that I was able to catch and checked their feet to compare. All were perfectly normal, no swelling, no scab, just wrinkly chicken skin.

 

[coach723]

Sometimes it's hard to get it started, but usually once you get an edge or side started it will start to come. No two feet are the same, important thing is to get all the gunk out so it can heal. If you can try the decolorized iodine overnight I find it works well for softening it up without having to do a long soak. I would do the foot you are working on and do the smaller one after this one is recovered, or try just doing topicals on the smaller. I've done both feet at the same time on occasion, but no fun for them to have two sore feet. I've had more trouble with roo's, I guess because they are heavier and more likely to hurt their feet doing roo stuff, and their feet tend to be larger. I just did a hen with a tiny one, used the decolorized iodine and the next day it came off easy and two days of wrap and she was done. That's the 'rainbows and unicorns' version of bumblefoot. I've had some that were much worse and took much longer.

 

[AnnaCastle]

Thanks, we'll try the decolorized iodine wrap tonight. I asked my husband to get some on way back home this evening (I'm grounded, broken car). You sound like you've dealt with this a lot. Did they all recover? Part of me panicked when I saw first one, then both feet, seems like a death sentence. And our bad luck with roos... Not him too!
Also in that article looks like she did both feet at the same time.

 

[AnnaCastle]

And why decolorized? Would regular (colored) iodine work? My neighbor has an iodine solution (forget what it's called) that is 10% iodine.

 

[Birds of a Feather]

Bumblefoot is usually not fatal.

 

[coach723]

Doing both or one foot at a time is really your preference. I'd do one and then decide. The vast majority of mine have recovered fine. Most of the time I find them pretty early, so they are small. I have one roo that has been an issue. I've been working on him for about 5 months now (many would have given up, and that would not be unreasonable at this point). His is not the usual compact kernal, but rather it had ribbons or strings of infection running through the foot pad, much harder to get it all cleaned out. I plan to continue with what I'm doing unless it spreads or looks like it becomes septic. He has improved a lot, we just don't seem to be able to get him quite cleaned up and it recurs. That is NOT the usual case, those are not so common, so yours will probably be much easier. Most of the time they are pretty straightforward.
I forgot to say before, I always put mine back with the flock as long as they are getting around OK, and the foot is wrapped well. Everyone is happier that way. And I have more than one roo, so I don't like to separate them for too long or reintegration can be tough.
Your neighbor probably has providone iodine, or betadine, which is orange. The decolorized iodine is a tincture mixed with alcohol, ammonium and potassium iodides. I don't know the chemistry behind it, but the decolorized works to soften it, I've not found the betadine to do so.

 

[coach723]

Bumblefoot is usually not fatal.

You are correct, it's not usually fatal. But it can be if it's not treated and it spreads into other tissue, the bone or becomes septic.